


Lock the Fire Escapes

by Saxophone



Series: Killjoy and the Abyss [4]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 14:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20508377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saxophone/pseuds/Saxophone





	Lock the Fire Escapes

Shit. The explosion sizzles your HUD to white static just as the blast sends you careening into the ground, you just barely manage to fire up your jump jets to soften the fall. Not that falling onto hard concrete is in any shape or form soft. You’re a jumbled pile of aching limbs for a bit as you wait for the world to stop spinning and your ears to stop ringing. You can’t tell if the iron taste in your mouth is from blood or a concussion. You’re pretty sure there’s footsteps coming from the mouth of the alleyway you unceremoniously crash landed in, but you don’t care about that right now. You more concerned with making sure nothing’s broken, so you flick your eyes over to the vital reading in your HUD, surprised to find them all in the green, you sure a shell don’t feel in the green. 

A soft groan gets mangled by your vocal distorters, which nearly fail halfway through the pathetic sound. Well. That’s not good. Looks like your helmet took the brunt of the damage. Unless the explosion was part of an EMP. Ugh. At least now you know your HUDs insulated from electrical surges, just not your modulators. You hiss as you attempt to pick yourself back up, leaning on the brick wall next to you for support. Shit. You’re gonna hurt like hell in the morning. You cast your sight around for your trusty rifle, you know it clattered to the ground with you. 

“Looking for this?”

You freeze immediately, you can’t say you didn't expect them considering the event that knocked you down here, but you were definitely hoping not to run into them. 

You lock eyes to the figure standing at the entrance to the alleyway, the light shining in from the street behind casting you in their elongated shadow. 

Abyss.  
Wait. Anton. Fuck. He’s got your rifle.

Too bad you’re too busy trying to stand upright to come up with something clever to say. That’s a lie, you always have something clever to say.

“Hey, remember when I said I could kick your ass without my rifle?” You croak, your modulators wavering between the high, digitized pitch of Killjoy and your actual voice. 

Abyss laughs, a cold hissing sort of noise “Looks like you took quite the beating there, _Maxie._”

You sigh and it only gets sort of mangled by your distorters. “Really with the name thing again? Don’t make me start calling you Annie.”

You’d like to imagine hes glaring at you now, but you can’t tell through his stupid reflective helmet, so you narrow Killjoy’s digital eyes in response. Because apparently those are still working.   
“Regretting going back on our deal now?” Abyss drawls, walking steadily towards you, hoisting your rifle easily across his chest. . 

You growl under your breath, of course you had known the explosion was coming, you’ve been keeping tabs on Abyss for the sole purpose of avoiding untimely death by explosion but this had been your last chance to nab your target before they flew town. So you had made the very wise decision of staying put, all for nothing too. The target had never showed.

You give an airy wave with your hand “Oh you know, whats some bruising here or there.” 

Abyss glances up at the building you fell from and lets out what you can only assume is whistle, but his distorters mangle it so bad you can’t be sure. 

“You fell quite a way.”

“Yes, thank you. I clearly don’t know how to gauge distance.”

Abyss is still getting closer and you’re still using a wall as a crutch. It’s not that you couldn't stand it's just that every time you do things that involve moving, your body very much disagrees with you by being in pain. So. You’re not helplessly stuck leaning against a wall, its very much a conscious choice that you have no control over. 

You do want to spit the blood out of your mouth though, it’s starting to get hard to talk through. So you bring a hand up to the seals keeping your helmet on release them, slipping your helm off with a heavy hand, you let it clatter to the ground. The stupid LED eyes stare up at you, over wide and oblivious so you spit on them. 

“You look like shit.”

You bare your bloody teeth into a grin “Thanks, you too.”

Abyss is five feet out, your rifle still in his grubby hands. You absently hover a hand over the revolver at your hip. Could you take him? Maybe. You don’t know how resistant his armor is to bullets. You could definitely pull your revolver faster than he could pull your cumbersome rifle. Unless he has strength mods. You also know your rifle is loaded and you know at this distance it doesn’t matter where he scores the shot, it will kill you. 

You’re too busy trying to calculate your chances to see the snap of his hands as he sends the butt of your rifle cracking into your chest. You yelp in pain and surprise as you lose all purchase on your wall and tumble backwards next to your discarded helmet. The hit wasn’t strong enough to seriously hurt you, just send you falling, though that still hurt quite a bit considering your previous injuries. You glare up at him and he lets the rifle clatter out of his hands onto the ground by your feet. 

“Next time stay out of the way.” He growls before firing up his jump jets and disappearing into the gloom above you. 

You groan and lay back next to your helmet, you frown at the emotionless eyes still glowing in the dark “Don’t give me that look.”


End file.
